How to Destroy the Government in Three Easy Steps

In eight short years, conservatives have effectively bankrupted many state
governments and left the fed in shambles. And now citizens have to "make
tough decisions" and share the suffering equally across the land (unless
of course, you're part of that lucky 1 percent who co-opted the functions of
government to serve their own ends ... they'll be cozy with their offshore bank
accounts, golden parachutes and permanent tax holidays).

Are you a teacher who educates our future citizens? Too bad. You've got to
tighten your belt and let that job go. Manual laborer? Sorry, but that job can
earn more money for our shareholders if it's done in Micronesia. Need a college
degree? Prepare for indentured servitude because you'll be working to pay us
off for most of your adult life. Health care? Ha! That's just a Ponzi scheme
dreamed up by a bunch of socialists.

Ever wonder how conservatives did all this?

Well, here's your very own how-to manual for getting Big Government out of
the way so you and your buddies can horde all the wealth to yourselves and build
your empire.

Step 1: Blame the Individuals

Every battle has to have two sides, so you'll need to divide the people against
each other. This means that you'll need to declare that "there's no such
thing as society" and focus the entire debate on the faults of individuals.

Enron screwed people over? That's just a few bad apples. The business news
a lap dog for corporate excess? That's just Jim Cramer doing his thing. The
economy in shambles? That's just George W leaving his legacy.

And of course the housing crisis is the fault of greedy buyers. Industry can't
do right for us because of that welfare queen. And government can't serve the
people because of that corrupt politician and his special-interest crony.

Get the people talking about individuals and it'll be easy to blind them to
the public infrastructure they depend on. You don't want anyone to make a peep
when we gut the schools, defund public works and empty out the Treasury. Those
problems will just be fodder to throw at the sorry Democrats we'll blame when
the fit hits the shan.

Step 2: Cut Taxes

Now that you've gotten everyone bickering about each other (and ignoring us),
you can get to work dismantling the government. All you have to do is cut taxes.
Yes, it's that simple. One move and you get all the benefits of (1) weakening
every social program; (2) making government services inadequate; (3) setting
the stage for calling out "waste" and inefficiencies (more of that
blame game!); (4) keeping your richest friends from ever having to pay for the
infrastructure they exploit to make all that money; (5) getting nonprofits and
opposition leaders in the government (progressives ... eck!!) to spend all their
precious resources fighting to keep things in the budget, and (6) outsourcing
government operations to your buddies in the corporate world so they can profit
from them.

This one move is strategic. It does all the work for you.

And when life starts looking dire, you get opportunities you never dreamed
possible in a democracy.

Step 3: Exploit Disaster

If you've managed to accomplish steps 1 and 2, people will be in a panic. And
we all know that panicky people make rash decisions. Now is your chance to push
that unpopular agenda through the cracks - disaster capitalism at its best!

Remember how we tricked the populace into an illegal invasion and occupation
of Iraq to secure oil revenues? That wouldn't have happened if people weren't
scared out of their wits by the fright of terrorism. Think people would have
gone for No Child Left Behind and allowed tests to replace learning in the classroom?
We had to fabricate a crisis (which took years of hard work to create) to push
that one through. And you know that there's no way we could take away so many
civil liberties with the Patriot Act if the debate was drawn out for weeks under
public scrutiny.

So there you have it. Three easy steps to destroy the government.

If you're an overachiever (you know who you are!), you might even try giving
away billions to your buddies in the banking industry when the bottom falls
out. Or consider no-bid contracts to our old pals in the energy and defense
sectors when no one is looking. Or, and this takes some special skill, you might
call any efforts to "increase revenues" just another example of irresponsible
spending that got us into this mess in the first place.

Note 1: Take care that progressives don't ever learn about this strategy. It
could be nullified and made ineffective by exposing our agenda, allowing people
to organize, or letting government work well enough for people to start thinking
that government isn't inherently bad and (gasp!) that it might be useful for
something other than empire-building.

Note 2: Want a more detailed discussion of how these ideas were so successfully
implemented? This excellent series by Sara Robinson will help you learn how
to take over the common sense of an entire culture: